Amazon rolls out new shopping app for Apple TV, but Prime Video is still not available
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac :
Context & Ripple Effects
In December 2016, Amazon puts a shopping app on Apple TV while still withholding Prime Video — the sharpest visible symptom of the standoff in which Amazon refuses to sell Apple hardware it can't put its video service on. The app gives Apple TV owners a commerce surface but no reason to cancel another streamer.
The freeze doesn't last long: within months, sources report a deal under which Apple would debut Prime Video at WWDC and Amazon would resume selling Apple TVs, a swap both sides confirm by June. The launch lands that December in over 100 countries with 4K HDR support, and Apple soon says the app set a tvOS first-week download record. By 2024 the relationship has fully inverted, with Apple TV+ sold as an add-on inside Prime Video Channels.
First-order effects
- Apple TV owners gain Amazon's storefront for the first time, but the missing Prime Video app leaves the box dependent on rival services for the content most households subscribe to.
- Apple is left marketing a living-room device whose biggest content gap is Amazon's, while Amazon keeps leverage by tying Prime Video availability to retail terms.
Second-order effects
- The asymmetry pressures both companies toward the détente reported in 2017 — Prime Video on Apple TV in exchange for Amazon resuming Apple TV sales — because each side is forgoing revenue on the other's platform.
- Once Prime Video lands, it becomes one of the strongest acquisition channels on tvOS, evidenced by its record-setting first-week downloads, raising the stakes of every future carriage negotiation.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points to streaming platforms treating each other as distribution rather than only competition — culminating in Apple TV+ being sold as a $9.99/month add-on within Prime Video Channels alongside 100+ other services.
- If the swap model holds, exclusive-app standoffs become negotiating positions rather than end states, with hardware access and channel placement traded against each other.
The trend: Platform feuds over app availability are giving way to reciprocal distribution deals, turning former exclusivity battles into paid carriage relationships.